“I sat at your table and watched how you treated someone you thought was beneath you,” I countered.

“I watched you belittle my daughter. I watched you treat kindness as weakness and poverty as a moral failing. I didn’t mock you, Beatrice. I simply gave you enough rope to hang yourself.”

The murmurs in the crowd were growing.

Julian gave a sharp nod to the technician at the back, and the two massive high-definition screens flanking the stage — until now displaying the Vance Manufacturing logo — flickered and changed.

They showed a live stock ticker. VNC: −42% and falling.

Below it, a headline from the Wall Street Journal in bold: HOLLOWAY GLOBAL TERMINATES ALL CONTRACTS WITH VANCE MANUFACTURING; ALLEGATIONS OF FORGERY AND FRAUD EMERGE.